Rogues’ Bookshelf – A Series of Series

Greenberg, Publisher (New York, US)
Series dates: 1926
Size: 5.25″ x 7.5″

Updates: 12/22/2024

Founded in 1924 by Jacob W. and David B. Greenberg, Greenberg published “how to” books, westerns, inspirational topics, health, cooking, agriculture, early gay fiction, sociology, police techniques, and theater. The firm was sold to Chilton Book Company in 1958. Thanks to Jonathan Freilich for information on the firm (also see Greenberg Publisher records, 1894-1976 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library | Columbia University Libraries Finding Aids).

The publisher seems to have had high hopes for the series, including a series editor, new introductions, a series introduction by Carl Van Doren, and a colophon by a young Boris Artzybasheff. The books are nicely bound and designed with heavy, linen paper endpapers and rough-cut pages.

Greenberg issued six Rogues’ Bookshelf titles by early February of 1926. An advertisement (shown below in Publishers’ Weekly) includes 24 planned titles. Of those 24, copies of 3 (The Road, Barry Lyndon, Moll Flanders) can be found in WorldCat. Two additional titles, Hajji Baba and The Rogue, appear as “new titles” in advertisements (see below), but no copies are to be found in WorldCat. They may be ghost titles (announced but not published). If this accounting is correct, the series included nine published titles and twenty-two planned but not issued titles.

The Pleasant History of Lazarillo de Tormes, His Fortunes and Adversities, Containing the Strange Adventures that Befell him in the Service of Sundry Masters, by Juan de Luna (1926)
The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom, by Tobias Smollett (1926)
The Adventures of Caleb Williams, by William Godwin (1926)
The Unfortunate Traveler, or, The Life of Jack Wilton, by Thomas Nash (1926)
The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild, the Great, by Henry Fielding (1926)
Modern Chivalry, Containing the Adventures of Captain Farrago and Teague O’Regan, by H.H. Brackenridge (1926, 1937)

The Road, by Jack London (1926)
Barry Lyndon, by William Makepeace Thackeray (1926, 1930)
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe (1926)
*Hajji Baba, by James Morier
*The Rogue, by Wilkie Collins

* Ghost titles, announced but not published

Thanks to Edgar Pauk for information on Rogues’ Bookshelf series titles. This encouraged me to create a detailed list of published and planned titles and track down the advertisements below.

An advertisement from Publishers Weekly (Feb. 6, 1926) details the initial six titles, with twenty-four additional titles in preparation.

Advertisement from Publishers Weekly, Vol. 109, February 6, 1926. pp. 380-381.

Five more titles were advertised as new to the series in July 1926. Of these, only three seem to have been published.

Advertisement from The Nation, July 14, 1926. Vol. 123, #3184, p. 46.

A similar advertisement from August of 1926 is still hopeful for the publication of five new titles. The firm must have been in financial straights to pull the final two titles from publication so late in the process (with introductions written and paid for, and advertising published).

Advertisement from the American Mercury, Vol. 8, August 1926, p. vi.

This copy of Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller (1926, first printing in the series) has an introduction by Samuel Chew. The series name is on the front and spine of the roguishly red dust jacket, and a relatively long series prospectus on the front jacket flap.

The published titles are listed on the back of the jacket. I have not compared the list of “Titles in Preparation” with the list in the Publishers’ Weekly advertisement above.

Bindings are in cloth with overlapping contrasting cloth. The series title and book title are printed on paper glued to the book spine.

The half-title page also includes the rogue logo.

The series editor, Ernest Brennecke, Jr., is listed with the initial six titles in the series facing the title page.